It’s easier to accept a shower than argue it won’t make any difference within 30 minutes of hiking. The real prize of heading into the bathroom to shower is that I get 20 minutes alone and there’s a toilet there. Porcelain is the real prize and the most missed item upon leaving town. Even more missed than non-dehydrated food.
Miles was coming to rescue Brave Sir Robin and his Minstrel (Bear and Sassy) this morning at 9. We had offered to take Miles to breakfast in return for all Miles and Linda have done to help us get through Oregon and now extract Bear and Sassy from the hazy skies of Northern California. When Miles arrived, we all walked down to Bob’s Restaurant (owned and operated by Kyle). Bear and Miles entertained us with NASA and USAF stories. Miles was part of the team that developed laser guided bombs. He’s also a big history buff so we found out some more history of Astoria which we visited last year while hiking the Oregon Coast Trail.
We tried to drag the morning out, but Miles has to work tomorrow so we had to give him time to get back to Portland, OR after he dropped us off at Etna Summit PCT Trailhead. To our surprise, Bear and Sassy were willing to take one more ride up to the trail to see us off. This was not how we pictured our hike ending with our tramily. I figured it would end with me “accidentally” getting pushed off a cliff then watching the other 3 members walk away while I bleed out. Alas, it’s not to be. 🎶 I’m still standing, feeling like a little kid. 🎶
I waited anxiously, watching Miles, Bear, and Sassy drive away and abandon us on the side of the road, miles from any form of civilization. I had too pee so bad, I didn’t think they’d ever get out of sight. I guess the six cups of coffee at breakfast may have been a bit much. We will probably miss them given time. We had planned on hiking over 1000 miles together this year, but they bailed after just 550 miles. I guess I do have some regrets.
Probably the biggest regret I have was when we were all getting ready to leave Ashland. Bear was not in any hurry to get back on the trail. I had gone out that morning to get all my hairs cut and I had hurried back to the hotel. I regret not taking the time to get my nose hairs waxed. If I had known no one was in a hurry, I wouldn’t have braidable length hair hanging from my nostrils today.
The first 3 miles of hiking today were all uphill. We gained almost 1400’ right out of the box. We were too exhausted from the climb to think about anyone or anything other than our climb. By the time we reached the top, we had completely forgotten we had ever been hiking with anyone else. I found it very unnerving that this is how people feel about me when we’re hiking with someone. Existence is a completely in the moment phenomenon.
At least we have a few things to remember whoever the hell it was we have been hiking with. We have extra food and body wipes, so we can be fuller and cleaner than normal. Most amazing to me, though, is that we have an itinerary laid out for us for the next 8 days. Bunny and I haven’t hiked by ourselves for almost 800 miles—550 miles with the Southern couple, (Beer and Sissy, was it?) and before that, we hiked about 250 miles with Charcoal B and Struggles (who we are now trying to catch up to). Prior to this 800 miles, we’d just wake up in the morning and walk until we started getting a bit tired, and then find a spot to camp. Now we have an itinerary that Camino Pete would be happy with.
Bier is going to keep an eye on the California fire map for the next several days and text us updates over our inReach. The volatility of the fire season played a big part in their decision to flee California. Currently, over 97% of California’s fire fighters are deployed and working longer hours than desirable. There are thunderstorms that might occur today and tomorrow in the Southern portion of Northern California (around Lassen National Park). The thunderstorms last week produced over 11,000 lightening strikes that started a large percentage of the current 372 fires in California. If the storms tonight and tomorrow have the same outcomes, California will not have enough resources to handle the additional fires.
We looked ahead and didn’t see any fires of immediate threat to us. In fact, the only fire that is a threat is named “the Bear Fire” around Quincy, CA. The PCT is closed, but there are alternative trails around the area. At present, the closure is 250 acres and the fire is only 30 acres of that closure. Bunny and I talked to Charcoal B and Struggles and they said they’re 2 weeks away from the closure so many things could change by then. One of the changes will hopefully be that we catch up to them before they reach it.
Bunny and I made our scheduled stop by 4:30. After the first moderate climb, the trail was actually quite enjoyable. The temperature is much cooler than it has been for the last couple of weeks (but we are up around 7000’ above sea level). The spring that was purported to be here wasn’t actually flowing, but we found a deep enough cold pool to get enough water for us to make it through the night and get us going tomorrow.
Because we were so early getting into camp, I did look into going on a few more miles. I didn’t see anything that looked decent for another 5 miles. I should have known better than to question Bear’s judgement. He has had 3 days to look through the options and develop this itinerary. I’m sure he’s fed all the data into one of NASA’s mainframe computers and done all the computational analysis. Bear has spoken! Just because he’s run away doesn’t make it any less viable.
EFG